Laboratory equipment such as some designs of homogenizers include a hub to which a processing plate is removably mounted, with the hub inducing a vigorous “swashing” motion of the processing plate, and with the processing plate holding tubes containing samples to be homogenized. This swashing motion of the processing plate is not rotational about the center of the processing plate, but instead is angularly reciprocating to induce a force with a rotational (sinusoidal) component and an axial component. Such homogenizer devices are commercially available for example under the brand name BEAD RUPTOR from Omni International, Inc. (Kennesaw, Ga.), and such processing plates are commonly referred to as “swash plates.”
Homogenization involves disaggregating, mixing, re-suspension, or emulsifying the components of a sample using a high-shear process with significant micron-level particle-size reduction of the sample components. Homogenization is commonly used for a number of laboratory applications such as creating emulsions, reducing agglomerate particles to increase reaction area, cell destruction for capture of DNA material (proteins, nucleic acids, and related small molecules), DNA and RNA amplification, and similar activities in which the sample is bodily tissue and/or fluid, or another substance.
Because of the very large forces required to be generated for homogenization, the processing plate must be swashed at very high oscillatory rates. Because of this, the tubes can sometimes loosen relative to the processing plate, which can result in the swashing forces not all being transmitted to the samples, which in turn can result in a lessened homogenization effect and/or in tube failure, tube ejection, or a combination thereof.
Accordingly, it can be seen that there exists a need for a better way to achieve very large swashing forces by homogenizers without causing the sample tubes to loosen. It is to the provision of solutions to this and other problems that the present invention is primarily directed.